Hey, I'm not here to put christianity or it's various factions on trial, as that seems to be taken care of in a few other threads. I just want to point out how it's being used as political tool in Ohio as the Republican candidates gear up for the Governor's race. As an editorial remark, I'll admit that I still believe in a separation between church and state, and this totally disgusts me.

A couple of excerpts from the Dispatch:

Quote:

Holding a Bible in one hand and the U.S. Constitution in the other, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell preaches tax and spending cuts to the faithful.

Quote:

With at least a decade each in statewide office, the party’s Big Three intimately know their audiences — conservative, God-fearing, patriotic. Like singers in a well-practiced choir, the candidates hit the high notes from the Republican hymnal, praising Lincoln, quoting Scripture, avowing family values and disavowing big government.

Quote:

[Ken Blackwell] spoke to Gallia County Republicans March 10 at a University of Rio Grande student center, but Blackwell just as easily could have been in a church. His speech might be best described as a political sermon.

"America was at its best, and America is always at its best, when God is at its center," Blackwell told the crowd of about 250.

_________________This place is like the fair, only it cost a dollar to get in and the rides are junked cars.

....he (Ken Blackwell) metamorphed from a charter reform Democrat, into a Carter Democrat, then a New Democrat, then an Independent, then a moderate Republican, then a conservative Republican, and is now the state’s leading reactionary right-wing Republican.

Blackwell has always represented opportunism in search of a political position. His flamboyant rhetorical style has never changed, as he has gone from arguing for civil rights to recently comparing himself to Gandhi and King as he offered himself up for arrest in defiance of a federal court ordering him to count provisional ballots cast within a voter’s county.

Did you hear any of the soundbites from his committee hearings yesterday regarding the elections in OH? Amazing. It was on NPR/WCBE this morning, also a dispatch article today. He is one of the most arrogant, contrary, slippery SOBs I've heard speak publicly. This guy is quickly moving to the top of my public enemy list.

_________________This place is like the fair, only it cost a dollar to get in and the rides are junked cars.

Television interviewer Chris Matthews is in Columbus today to grill Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell about their ambitions to be governor for his MSNBC show, Hardball.

Coleman, a Democrat, and Blackwell, a Republican, were the first two candidates to formally announce a run for governor in the 2006 election.

The show, which will air at 7 p.m. on MSNBC, is being broadcast from the NBC4 studios on Olentangy River Road. Matthews spent 15 years working in politics and government, including four years as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.

_________________This place is like the fair, only it cost a dollar to get in and the rides are junked cars.

Television interviewer Chris Matthews is in Columbus today to grill Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell about their ambitions to be governor for his MSNBC show, Hardball.

Coleman, a Democrat, and Blackwell, a Republican, were the first two candidates to formally announce a run for governor in the 2006 election.

The show, which will air at 7 p.m. on MSNBC, is being broadcast from the NBC4 studios on Olentangy River Road. Matthews spent 15 years working in politics and government, including four years as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.

If you're expecting Chris Matthews to be tough on Blackwell, good luck. For every one episode of Hardball where he actually takes people on regarding "facts," there are a hundred spent kissing conservative ass and attacking Hillary Clinton. MSNBC is going the way of FOX, and Matthews isn't complaining one bit.

man, this guy is the slime. I like how he recently said that the November elections went smoothly. I guess he did not have to vote anywhere near the poor neighborhoods. Fuck that guy.

_________________"The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other... involves orcs." - Kung Fu Monkey

By persuading Heimlich, an archconservative, to join the ticket, Petro sought to wipe out the geographical and political advantage with conservative Republicans ascribed to Blackwell, a former Cincinnati mayor.

Quote:

Heimlich, 51, is a fiscal and social conservative who as a councilman voted to roll back Cincinnati’s property taxes. He and Petro oppose abortion rights; Petro switched his position on the issue in 2000.

"We believe 100 percent in the sanctity of marriage, 100 percent in being pro-life, and that’s going to be part of our campaign and part of our administration," Heimlich said.

Quote:

"You can’t get much further to the right in the Hamilton County Republican Party than Phil, and that’s pretty damn far right for the citizens of Ohio," said Tim Burke, Hamilton County Democratic chairman.

_________________This place is like the fair, only it cost a dollar to get in and the rides are junked cars.

The project, which describes itself as nonpartisan and nonprofit, will not endorse candidates. But Mr. Blackwell will be invited to speak to pastoral meetings and to a statewide Ohio for Jesus rally next spring, along with other prominent Christian conservatives like the Rev. Franklin Graham, Dr. James Dobson and Charles Colson, the plan says.

Quote:

"The establishment of the Ohio Republican Party is out of touch with its base," said Russell Johnson, the pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church and the principal organizer of the project. "It acts as if it lives in Boston, Mass."

I read that article in today's Dispatch and am hoping the endorsement from one of the other pastors in that article (bold print on page 2) is all the somewhat "middle of the road" Evangelicals need to make their decision concerning Blackwell.

To me this particular pastoral endorsement is very scary if it is considered a positive thing...... concerning anything politcial at all.